SOCHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th December, 2020) Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday that he discussed the possible increase of quotas for the supply of Turkish tomatoes to Russia with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"Today we talked about the possibility of increasing the quota for the supply of tomatoes and other vegetables," Cavusoglu said at a briefing following talks with Lavrov in Sochi.
According to Cavusoglu, in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decline in bilateral trade.
Russia imposed an embargo on the supply of number of products from Turkey on January 1, 2016, in response to a Turkish Air Force attack on a Russian Su-24 in Syria in November 2015. Since the fall of 2016, the restrictions have been gradually removed. The embargo on the supply of tomatoes, one of Turkey's most important products, continued until November 2017, when the tough import ban was lifted.
Since May 2018, Russia has lifted the restriction on the number of tomato exporters from Turkey, leaving a total supply quota of 50,000 tons. Then the quota was increased several times, most recently in February 2020, up to 200,000 tons.
Earlier in December, the press service of the Russian Ministry Of Agriculture said it would consider changing the quota for the import of tomatoes from Turkey.
